A Path to the Future: Creating Accountability for Personalized Learning

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In this Bellwether Education Partners publication, researchers explore the growing tension between personalized learning and accountability structures. Though the two share the common goal of graduating students who are prepared to succeed in college and the workplace, they adopt different approaches to achieve the goal. Personalized learning is mastery-based, meaning students advance to the next concept once they have demonstrated mastery of specific content. Accountability structures, on the other hand, are time bound, requiring students to demonstrate mastery of grade-level content by the end of a school year. The researchers opine that, as personalized learning models become more popular, steps must be taken to better reconcile the two approaches to education. Bellwether also includes recommendations to reform the overarching accountability system and provide exemptions for schools and districts that meet certain criteria.